Intellectual Censorship and Repression: The Intensifying Crisis of HBCUs and the Corporate University

• In Event: 2166 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 2: Blackness & College

Abstract

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have a unique position in the academy and have a distinct place within the current political moment. The whole world is in transition and embodies an irreversible capitalist crisis, intensifying state violence, white supremacy, xenophobia, patriarchy, homophobia, ecocide, political polarity, and struggle from below. The political climate ushers in an intensification of the polarization of wealth and poverty, democracy for billionaire capitalists, and fascism for the masses. The underlying cause of these crises and motions is rooted in the revolutionary process – of economic revolution, social destruction and upheaval, and political revolution that qualitatively transforms power relations in society.
The corporate university exists within this global transition in society and is deeply impacted by the current crisis and developing social motion. HBCUs are susceptible to the change in the climate and their resources are affected more than its counterparts. Scholar activists working in and matriculating through HBCUs, lack the privilege of resources and many times recognition from outside institutions. How the academy and research are funded, the quality of jobs and student (undergraduate and graduate) support and who benefits, the subtle (and not so subtle) forms of censorship of the content of our teaching, research and publications, and more effect all within the corporate university. In this paper we will explore how the historic lack of resources and racial polarization within the academy, coupled with the current intensifying crisis of capitalism, influence the political activity of scholar activists from HBCUs. We share this analysis and these tools to inform conversations across generations, institutions, time, and space about the intellectual and political practice of scholar activists in relation to 21st century transformative movements and the corporate university.

Authors

• Britany Gatewood, Howard University

• Anthony Jerald Jackson, Howard Univerity

• Walda Katz-Fishman, Howard University

• Kiara Davis, Howard University